Canadians are literally giving the shirts off their back in UNIQLO flannel pop-up

UNIQLO Canada just opened a flannel pop-up in Toronto where Canadians could give the shirt off their back—literally. Customers who came in to try on a flannel shirt were given two choices: they could keep the shirt for free, or hang it up for a newcomer to Canada. The walls of the reverse pop-up space, which started out bare, soon filled up with shirts for Canadian newcomers, who later arrived to find out that the shirts had been put there for them by others.

“We opened a pop-up space that was completely empty so that Canadians could be the ones to fill it up,” says Yasuhiro Hayashi, Chief Operating Officer of UNIQLO Canada. “And it didn’t take long for the walls to be fully covered. We knew Canadians were warm and welcoming, but we were very surprised when every single person who came in decided to give up their shirt to a Canadian newcomer.”

The campaign also went beyond the pop-up activation. The clothing brand gave flannel shirts to a few other locals like Craig Wong, Soteeoh and Brent Albrecht so they could give them out to Canadian newcomers in their communities.